Author: Kalantarian Kevo

RUSSIAN COMPANIES TOLD ARMENIAN COMPANIES TO WAIT

Roza Hovhannisyan, Reporter
Business – 13 February 2015, 12:45

The minister of economy Karen Chshmarityan told Lragir.am after the
meeting of government that problems have occurred within the Eurasian
Economic Union which are being attended to at this stage.

Commenting on complaints of companies, Chshmarityan said: “Introduction
of a new system or changes in any system… We informed companies,
almost every day but after the roadmap available there are activities
to carry out, which are now going on.. If we compare in terms of
change of regulations, their simplification and introduction of new
regulations, I think we are not in a bad but in a very good situation
because the impression was that problems would have been many more
but they are not as many as we had expected,” the minister said.

He noted that as part of the EEU Armenia is facing problems with
regulations which are objective problems.

“But I think that they will be resolved shortly. Problems are addressed
with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on a daily basis, they are mostly
technical issues,” he said.

In answer to our question that aside from technical issues the Armenian
companies are facing serious problems with exports, in fact exports
have been brought to a halt, Karen Chshmarityan said it was expected
until Russia finalizes adjustments.

“It is not so that the Russian companies told our companies to stop
exports. If deals were made in dollars, and our deals were made mainly
in dollars, it was not profitable for them. They had not adjusted
prices, if they bought in dollars, they would suffer losses. Deals
in Russian rubles were not profitable for our companies. Now this
adjustment is underway. They say wait, they don’t say we don’t want
your products because our products are competitive by their kind,
uniqueness. There will be demand, and if we can, we will support,”
he said.

The minister could not estimate losses the Armenian economy will bear
until these problems are overcome. He noted that nobody can provide
exact numbers.

In answer to the observation that the Armenian government used
to hail the huge market and opportunities that would open up in
the EEU but apparently the picture is opposite, Karen Chshmarityan
said simplification of any trade relations will definitely produce
a positive impact. “Whether the EEU or the European Union. The real
picture of that impact will be visible when the situation stabilizes,
and the signals are already in place in our partner countries. It is
too early to make a forecast today,” he said.

In answer to our question why they hurried to join the EEU in such
uncertainty, he said we are already a member.

The minister denies there is economic crisis. “One cannot say that
there is an economic crisis as such. I can justify. The factors that
you are mainly trumpeting, I mean the impact of the Russian economy,
it tends to stabilize already. Prices are up, of course, but over
the past 1-2 months there were no big fluctuations, there are no bug
fluctuations of currency rates, the oil price, if you have noticed,
does not have big fluctuations, it is even rising,” he noted.

As to problems in the Armenian banking sector, and rumors that
banks refuse loan applications, the minister said: “It is not true
that banks refuse everyone. I am saying this as a representative of
economic entities, not banks. With some limited quantity… you know
when the rate of refinancing rises, when collateral loan rate rises,
or reserve ratio rises, loans grow expensive, this is a process which
will undergo adjustments. Along with stabilization demand and supply
will get closer.”

The minister economy says the Economic Activity Index in 2014 is not
low, considering the external negative factors. “Where did you learn
that the economic activity was low, it was 3.9% despite such external
impact, fluctuations. You are saying low. First remove that impact
and see what it would be like,” he said.

Karen Chshmarityan said gas supply to Armenia was not discussed in
the latest EEU conference.

COMMENT FORCER LES ALEVIS A RENONCER A LEUR FOI ET LEUR CULTURE

Turquie

Le quotidien turc Hurriyet Daily News du 11 fevrier 2015 rapporte
qu’une directive du Directoire charge de l’education religieuse
du ministère turc de l’Education precise que seuls les elèves de
confession chretienne ou juive seront dispenses des cours obligatoires
sur l’islam sunnite.

Cette directive est essentiellement dirigee contre la communaute
alevie de Turquie. Rappelons que l’alevisme regroupe des membres
de l’islam dits heterodoxes et revendique la tradition universelle
et originelle de l’islam et plus largement de toutes les religions
monotheistes. Il s’agit d’un large syncretisme qui donne une approche
très liberale de la religion. Les alevis sont musulmans mais n’ont
pas l’obligation des cinq prières quotidiennes ni du pèlerinage a La
Mecque, ils boivent de l’alcool et les femmes ne sont pas voilees.

Leur lieu de culte n’est pas la mosquee mais le cemevi, (cem evi) qui
signifie, en turc, maison ou lieu du rassemblement. Pour les alevis,
les textes relatifs au foulard des femmes n’ont aucun caractère
universel et ces textes sont, selon les conditions sociales et de
vie d’aujourd’hui, caduques.

L’alevisme constitue la seconde religion en Turquie après le sunnisme.

Si officiellement ils constituent les 10 et 15 % de la population
turque, les sources alevies estiment qu’ils sont entre 20 a 25 %
de la population.

lire la suite, voir lien plus bas

vendredi 13 fevrier 2015, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

YEREVAN PROTEST DEMANDS TO HAND OVER GYUMRI MASSACRE CULPRIT TO ARMENIAN LAW ENFORCERS

19:14 12/02/2015 >> SOCIETY

A protest was staged outside the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office
in Yerevan on Thursday.

The protesters demanded guarantees that Russian soldier Valery
Permyakov charged with murdering the Avetisyan family in Armenia’s
Gyumri will be handed over to Armenian law enforcers. They demanded
that the Prosecutor’s Office act transparently and make public the
response to the letter sent to the Russian side.

They handed over a letter to Prosecutor General’s Office stating
their demands.

Six members of one family, including a two-year-old child, were shot
dead in their house in Gyumri on January 12. A six-month-old baby
was hospitalized with stab wounds. He died in hospital on January 12.

Valery Permyakov, a serviceman of the 102nd Russian military base
stationed in Gyumri, the main suspect in the murder, was detained by
Russian border guards while attempting to cross the Armenian-Turkish
border near Yerazgavors village in Armenia’s Shirak province.

Permyakov is held in custody at the Russian military base. He was
questioned and confessed to the crime. Permyakov is charged under
Article 105.2 and 338.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (murder and
desertion). Also, Armenian Investigative Committee brought a charge
against Permyakov under Article 104 part 2 point 1 (murder of two or
more persons) of the Armenian Criminal Code.

TURKISH PRESIDENT: IF ARMENIANS HAVE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS ON THEIR UNFOUNDED CLAIMS, SO LET THEM OPEN THOSE DOCUMENTS

The Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency
Feb 11 2015

Istanbul, February 11, AzerTAc

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly criticized the
Armenian leadership and diaspora organizations for insincerity towards
Turkey.According to Anadolu Agency, the Turkish President, who spoke
during his official visit to Colombia, said Armenia`s and Armenian
diaspora organizations` claims against Turkey are fully groundless.

“The only way to reveal the truth about these imaginary claims is to
open archives.” “Turkey has taken the first step on this front. More
than one million documents from the archives uncovered false claims of
Armenia against Turkey,” said Mr Erdogan.”If Armenians have official
documents on their unfounded claims, so let them open those documents,”
he added.

Sabir Shahtakhtı

ERDOGAN: ARMENIAN DIASPORA HINDERS PEACE EFFORTS AND DIALOGUE

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Feb 11 2015

NURBANU KIZIL

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan highlighted that Turkey
is ready for a constructive and objective approach to resolve the
tensions between Armenia and Turkey due to the 1915 incidents despite
the objection of the Armenian diaspora

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that every time Turkey tries to
approach Armenia to resolve the issues between the two countries, they
have been left without a response as the Armenian diaspora continues
to block Turkey’s efforts to establish peace through dialogue.

As part of his official visit to Colombia, Erdogan spoke on Tuesday
at a symposium co-organized by Bogota Externado University and Ankara
University and urged Armenia to examine the 1915 events in a more
objective manner through the lens of science and not politics. He also
said that Turkey is sincere in its readiness to investigate the issue
in order to reach accurate conclusions. He highlighted that the 1915
events have not been properly examined or discussed.

“On the 100th anniversary of the 1915 events, as Turkey we repeat our
sincere call to Armenia,” Erdogan said, urging Armenians to take a
more proactive and objective approach and let scholars and academics
investigate the matter rather than politicians.

Erdogan said that Armenian leaders rejected Turkey’s invitation to
attend the ceremony organized in Canakkale to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli in a discourteous manner
and that their offensive statements closed the doors of dialogue
once again.

“We wanted them to be in Canakkale on April 24 and breathe the spirit
in the air, try to comprehend what hundreds of thousands of Turkish
martyrs experienced,” Erdogan said, and reiterated that Turkey will
not give up its efforts to reach peace and dialogue with respect to
the 1915 events.

He underscored that Turkey has always been against conflicts and crises
in the region and has made rational and justified objections to such
attempts. “We want peace, justice, friendship and brotherhood in our
region,” he said, adding that Turkey is not requesting anything else.

In January, Erdogan sent invitation letters to over 100 world leaders
to take part in the ceremonies commemorating the 100oth anniversary
of the Battle of Gallipoli on April 24.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan reportedly rejected Erdogan’s
invitation as being a “short-sighted” attempt to cover the 100th year
commemoration of the 1915 events.

In a the speech, Erdogan said that understanding World War I was
crucial to comprehending the current state of events in the world as
it drew the borders of the current nation-states, which had serious
implications for today.

“Many of our global problems today are rooted in World War I,” he
said, explaining that the issue in Palestine and conflicts in Iraq,
Yemen, Egypt, North Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans can all be
traced back to the war.

“The borders were not only drawn for territories, but were also imposed
on the people,” Erdogan said, arguing that abstract borders had been
forcefully imposed on people’s mentalities, cultures and religions
and that siblings had been made enemies.

The 1915 events occurred during World War I when a segment of
Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire supported the Russian
invasion and revolted against the state and were relocated to eastern
Anatolia. While Turkey refrains from using the term “genocide” to refer
to the incident, as many Turks also lost their lives due to attacks
carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia, the Armenian state and
diaspora are campaigning for the incident to be recognized as genocide.

Erdogan issued a letter expressing condolences for the 1915 events
on April 23, 2014, which was unprecedented in Turkey’s history. In
the letter, he urged for the establishment of a joint historical
commission to investigate the events and called Armenia to open their
archives as Turkey has done.

SEVAN NISANYAN IS FACING IMPRISONMENT FOR ‘DENIGRATING RELIGIOUS VALUES’

5 February 2015

Sevan NiÃ…~_anyan is a controversial figure in Turkey for his harsh
critiques of Kemalism, Islam as well as his outspoken opposition to
the Turkish authorities’ refusal to acknowledge that there had been
an Armenian genocide.

Sevan NiÃ…~_anyan is a writer, linguist, hotelier and public
intellectual from Turkey’s Armenian minority, whose etymological
dictionaries, travel books and treatises on Turkish, Islamic and
Anatolian culture have been widely hailed for their importance to
contemporary Turkish cultural discourse. He is a controversial figure
in Turkey for his harsh critiques of Kemalism (the ideology of the
founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk) and Islam as well
as his outspoken opposition to the Turkish authorities’ refusal to
acknowledge that there had been an Armenian genocide.

One of the biggest controversies in which NiÃ…~_anyan has been
involved relates to a blog post he made in September 2012. Writing
in his personal blog, NiÃ…~_anyan criticised the government’s call
to introduce a new ‘hate speech’ bill in response to the release
of the film The Innocence of Muslims. The film led to widespread
protests around the world as a result of its unflattering depiction
of the prophet Muhammad. Writing in defence of the right to freedom
of expression, NiÃ…~_anyan criticised the government’s attempts to
prohibit criticism of the historical Muhammad.

NiÃ…~_anyan’s blog post was deemed by the public prosecutor’s office
to constitute religious defamation and he was charged under Article
216/3 of the Turkish Penal Code. On 22 May 2013, an Istanbul court
found him guilty and he was sentenced to 15.5 months in prison. This
conviction and prison sentence remains under appeal.

PEN International notes that NiÃ…~_anyan faces further possible
imprisonment as punishment for offending Turkey’s conservative
elite and is gravely concerned that his conviction and sentence are
motivated by animosity for his legitimate expression as a public
intellectual. The organisation believes that NiÃ…~_anyan’s comments
fall well within the realm of legitimate historical and religious
criticism and that his conviction for religious defamation is a
violation of his right to freedom of expression as well as his right
to freedom of thought, conscience and religion/belief. Both these
rights are protected under Articles 18 and 19 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Articles 9 and 10
of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which Turkey
is a state party.

Article 216/3 functions as a blasphemy law by criminalising the public
‘denigration’ of religious values. This article has been criticised
for affording different levels of protection to different religions or
beliefs and for being applied in a discriminatory manner, particularly
towards unorthodox, non-religious or anti-religious beliefs. These
concerns have been highlighted in the cases of renowned concert
pianist and composer Fazil Say, and journalists Ceyda Karan and Hikmet
Cetinkaya. PEN reiterates the comment made in the Rabat Plan of Action
on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious
hatred regarding blasphemy laws: ‘The right to freedom of religion
or belief, as enshrined in relevant international legal standards,
does not include the right to have a religion or a belief that is
free from criticism or ridicule’. PEN believes that the fundamental
human right to freedom of expression guarantees the right to express
critical views, even those that offend, shock or disturb. PEN calls
on the Turkish authorities to repeal Article 216/3 and drop all cases
against writers under this law for their legitimate expression.

The interview below was conducted with the help of Sait Cetinoglu,
who very kindly relayed PEN’s questions to NiÃ…~_anyan in Yenipazar
prison, where the Armenian-Turkish writer is currently serving a
two-year sentence as a result of a separate construction dispute with
the Turkish authorities.

A case was brought against you for a piece you wrote on your personal
blog. What does the bringing of this case and the fact that you were
convicted at its conclusion tell us about the state of freedom of
expression in Turkey?

The blog piece for which I was prosecuted and convicted argued simply
that disrespectful speech about an ancient Arab leader – implying the
prophet of Islam – was a matter of free speech that should be under
the protection of law. It employed mildly disrespectful language
about the prophet to illustrate the point.

As a result I was attacked in vile language by a government minister,
a top aide to the then prime minister, and the top religious official
of the country; several newspapers launched a lynching campaign;
I received hundreds of death threats; I was prosecuted in about a
dozen courts around the country; and I was sentenced to 15.5 months
in jail for blasphemy.

I believe the case illustrates how gravely free speech is imperilled
in this country; at least as far as Islamic prejudices are concerned.

What did the court point to as its reasoning behind this decision?

The court made a rather tendentious attempt to base its decision on
some precedents from the European Court of Human Rights. It also
asserted, without evidence, that my blog piece “threatened public
order”. It was necessary to add that bit to have a case under article
216 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes religious blasphemy where
it threatens public order.

What was it about these arguments that you found objectionable and
do you think they represent an undue restriction on your right to
freedom of expression?

I believe this country, as well as the world at large, urgently needs
a serious debate about the role of Islam in modern society. But that
debate is impossible if every phrase that is contrary to the beliefs,
prejudices, habits or sensitivities of the self-appointed spokesmen
of Islam is going to be banned or prosecuted or greeted with paroxysms
of rage.

What kind of impact do cases like these have on outspoken critics
such as yourself as well as ordinary members of the public?

The ordinary public is cowed. The outspoken critics are likely to
hold out longer, but the spiralling pace of repression will eventually
make many of them think again.

What kind of impact do such court cases have on your writing?

I have been in jail for a year now. That obviously has a dampening
effect on one’s writing. I use the time to concentrate on my academic
research, which is in historical linguistics.

Why is it important that forms of expression that offend, shock,
disturb are worthy of protection?

Anything that is genuinely new for a society will by definition offend,
shock or disturb. You cannot swim against the current of received
opinion without touching the nerves of the owners of received opinion.

You could either let things run in their established rut, or else
you must encourage and protect those who risk offense and shock by
seeking new paths of thought. Some of offenders may be purveyors
of junk. But you cannot expect to hear anything new unless you are
prepared to tolerate a certain amount of junk.

In recent years, cases brought under Article 216 of the Turkish Penal
Code have been increasingly coming to prominence; indeed some have
described Article 216 as Turkey’s new Article 301. What does this
tell us about the way taboos have changed in Turkey in recent years?

Article 216 is actually a reasonably phrased piece of legislation. In
a sane environment it could be used to penalize vilification campaigns
against, for example, the Jews or other religious minorities. The
problem is that most Turkish courts take it as their duty to
uphold government authority at all costs against the claims of any
individual or minority interest. Nationalism was the sacred cow of
Turkish governments until 2002; so free thinkers and dissidents were
prosecuted for touching that particular bovine. Now Islam is the
sacred cow, and one must be careful not be irritate this one.

Opinions expressed by NiÃ…~_anyan in this interview do not necessarily
reflect or represent the views of PEN International.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO CLOSE THE DOOR WHEN IT’S LOCKED FROM THE INSIDE-ARMENIA’S MFA COUNTERS ERDOGAN

19:05, 11 February, 2015

YEREVAN, 11 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. It’s impossible to close a door
when it’s locked from the inside. This is what press speaker of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Balayan
declared as he commented on Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan’s
statement at the request of NEWS.am.

Earlier, it became clear that during the official visit to Colombia,
Erdogan had declared that “Armenia has closed the door to peace”.

“We know that the Armenian Diaspora is leading an anti-Turkish
campaign. We have made efforts to turn a new page, but unfortunately,
the hand that we extended is still hanging in thin air. We said let
us remove that issue from the political agenda and move it to the
academic level prior to the 100th anniversary. We sent an invitation
to Canakkale on April 24th, but Armenia closed the door to peace,”
Erdogan declared.

Let us mention that Turkey traditionally marked the anniversary of
the Battle of Gallipoli on March 18th, not on April 24th.

Before Turkey would decide to move the date, President of Armenia
Serzh Sargsyan had invited President of Turkey Recep Tayyib Erdogan
to Yerevan and attend the Armenian Genocide Centennial Commemoration
events on April 24th, but Erdogan had not responded to the invitation.

TRAPPED IN BAKU

Foreign Policy
Feb 11 2015

A press freedom advocate — and husband of an American servicewoman —
went to the U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan, fearing for his life. But he
was turned away.

by Michael Weiss

An Azerbaijani dissident married to a U.S. servicewoman has spent the
last half-year living in the Swiss embassy in Baku, denied protection
by the American embassy there. The 35-year-old human rights defender
Emin Huseynov has long been persecuted by the authoritarian government
of Ilham Aliyev and since August 2014 has been hosted by the Swiss
embassy for humanitarian reasons after he went into hiding last summer,
fearing his arrest was imminent.

The Swiss television show “Rundschau” broke the news today, and the
Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Huseynov’s residence in
its embassy. The story of how he got there six-and-a-half months
ago resembles an international thriller redolent of Argo, though
conspicuously absent of U.S. involvement. It was relayed exclusively
to Foreign Policy by sources close to Huseynov in advance of today’s
announcement.

As chairman of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS),
a local NGO, Huseynov is one of many victims of an intense government
crackdown on free speech and civil society that has taken place
in Azerbaijan over the past year — a crackdown that has surprised
even hardened human rights monitors. In May 2014, Anar Mammadli, the
chairman of the highly regarded Election Monitoring and Democracy
Studies Center (EMDS), was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in
prison for spurious charges which included tax evasion and illegal
entrepreneurship; his real crime, according to human rights monitors,
was reporting on the Aliyev government’s election-rigging. Meanwhile,
the executive director of EMDS, Bashir Suleymanli, got three-and-a-half
years in jail. Then in July, Leyla Yunus, a noted democracy and peace
activist working on the reconciliation of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis,
was arrested on a suite of similarly concocted charges that include
high treason and spying on behalf of Armenia; her husband, Arif Yunis,
was also taken into custody on treason and fraud allegations. Finally
in August, two Azerbaijani legal activists — Rasul Jafarov and
Intigam Aliyev — were rounded up.

That same month, fearing for his life, Huseynov went into hiding.

According to sources, his bank accounts were first frozen in June,
and yet Huseynov was still able to leave the country, which he did
to attend a session at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg where he and Jafarov put on an event
exposing Aliyev’s suffocation of civil society in Azerbaijan. After
Jafarov was detained, Huseynov sensed the net closing on him. In
early August, Huseynov attended an event at the U.S. embassy in Baku
where he eventually found himself alone with the Charge d’Affaires
Dereck Hogan. The American ambassador, Richard Morningstar, had
left Azerbaijan only a week earlier, leaving the embassy without a
diplomatic head. According to sources, Huseynov scribbled a note on a
piece of paper which he passed to Hogan: “What kind of assistance can
you provide me? I am in danger of arrest.” Hogan said he couldn’t help.

“[Huseynov] never had a bad relationship with Dereck,” said one source
who requested anonymity. “He never criticized the embassy and tried
to be diplomatic even when he criticized U.S. policy in Azerbaijan.”

Foreign Policy tried to contact Hogan at the embassy and was referred
instead to the State Department in Washington. No one responded to
inquiries by press time.

On August 6, Huseynov tried to leave the country to receive medical
treatment in Turkey, but was stopped by border control and turned
back. The day after that, August 8, colleagues from his office called
to inform him that the headquarters of IRFS was being surveilled by
state security, and warned Huseynov not to come to work. The office
was then raided, prompting rumors in the Azerbaijani press that
Huseynov had been arrested. He hadn’t. Instead, he went into hiding,
which only amplified speculation as to his whereabouts. Press reports
said he had fled to the U.S. embassy, which on August 12 put out
a statement denying that it was harboring him — a two-line denial
that many familiar with the case said read uncomfortably like a total
repudiation of an embattled dissident. But Washington wasn’t totally
unsympathetic to his predicament: the U.S. mission to the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued a blanket statement
on August 14 calling on Baku to “halt the continuing arrests of
peaceful activists, to stop freezing organizations’ and individuals’
bank accounts, and to release those who have been incarcerated
in connection with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms,”
mentioning the Yunuses, Jafarov, and Huseynov by name.

But the fact that Huseynov, while not a U.S. citizen himself, has
an American wife ought to have made his case more of a priority to
the State Department, according to human rights monitors and one
ex-diplomat.

A few European countries allegedly offered to take Huseynov in; he
opted for Switzerland, owing to its embassy’s proximity to his hideout.

“He totally changed his physical appearance, he dyed his hair, wore
a disguise,” one source relayed.

“He totally changed his physical appearance, he dyed his hair, wore
a disguise,” one source relayed. “Emin even did test runs: he’d go
out in disguise to see if people recognized him.”

On August 18, he made a play for the embassy grounds. A car driven
by an Azeri confidante, who evidently had to flee the country after
his identity was uncovered, dropped him off a few blocks away. The
authorities were aware that Huseynov was attempting refuge in a
foreign country and had begun staking out embassy entrances in Baku.

“Emin was walking to the embassy and realized there’s tons of
plainclothes cops,” said a source familiar with Huseynov’s story.

“They tried to talk to him. He spoke to them in broken English to
try and throw them off. They asked to see his passport. ‘No, no,’
he said, ‘the Swiss have my passport.’ They didn’t recognize him at
first. He rang the doorbell to the embassy, as the cops were still
interrogating him. Someone opened the door and pulled him inside. A
five-second hesitation and Emin swears he’d have been nabbed.”

Huseynov would spend the next several months living on Swiss soil in
his native country, flanked by a 24-hour police cordon of the embassy.

The Aliyev government has not publicly acknowledged his presence in
the Swiss embassy and, until today, the Swiss hadn’t either, although
they’ve been negotiating with the Aliyev government for Huseynov’s
safe passage out of Azerbaijan.

His case was known to a number of human rights monitors that Foreign
Policy contacted for comment, such as Giorgi Gogia, the South Caucasus
specialist at Human Rights Watch. “I know that the Swiss government
has been negotiating at the highest level possible with Azerbaijan,”
Gogia said. “And I know the Azerbaijan government has been against
letting Emin leave. It’s crazy that this is ongoing.”

Huseynov’s safe conduct out of the country is particularly critical
because the last time he was arrested — for attending a party
celebrating the birthday of Che Guevara — he was beaten by police so
badly he wound up in intensive care and had to be treated for head and
brain trauma. That was in 2008. Huseynov’s younger brother, Mehman,
a video blogger and photojournalist who also works for IRFS, was also
targeted by the police in 2012 for drawing attention to human rights
violations during the Eurovision Song Contest held in Baku that year.

In October 2014, Mehman was again arrested and brought to the
Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General for Serious Crimes.

He, too, has also been barred from leaving Azerbaijan.

According to Gogia, while Azerbaijan’s record on human rights has
always been dismal, conditions have grown infinitely worse recently.

“Three major things have happened that have never happened before.

First, the government arrested the towering figures of the NGO
movements. Second, since last January, it hasn’t registered a single
foreign grant. In the past, you had to register a grant at the
Ministry of Justice, but it was a pro forma procedure and no one was
refused. Third, the government went after and froze the bank accounts
of over 50 NGOs and their leaders, including [Huseynov]. Very suddenly,
from a very bad human rights record, it turned into a closed-country
human rights record. It was really hard and shocking to see how fast
the country was closing down. And the perverse irony is that all this
is taking place as Azerbaijan chairs the Council of Ministers at PACE.”

One former American diplomat questions the U.S. embassy’s hands-off
approach. “If the embassy knew that person was married to an American
citizen, that would require more than if this were just a normal
Azerbaijani citizen facing harassment or arrest by the police,”
said Richard Kauzlarich, who served as ambassador to Azerbaijan in
1994-1997. “There’s not much you can do for your average everyday
citizen of the country you’re embassy is in, but if it’s the spouse
of one our own, that changes things.”

Curiously, while Huseynov was running for his life, another urgent
human rights episode occurred, again ensnaring the U.S. embassy in
Baku — this one seemingly less complicated, however, as it concerned
someone with dual Azerbaijani-American citizenship.

Said Nuri, who became a U.S. citizen in 2012 after six years of
political asylum, was used to traveling back to Azerbaijan without
incident, albeit with a tail of police surveillance. “The government
followed me everywhere, took my pictures. Sitting in cafe or restaurant
— they put a camera on the next table taping us. Even my friends
published articles about that,” Nuri said. But then, last August, he
applied for a visa to visit his father, whom he had just discovered
had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. “I was in Ukraine at the
time, so I went to the Azerbaijani embassy in Kiev. It took three
weeks to get the visa. I went to Baku. I stayed seven days with my
family. Then, when I was trying to fly back to Kiev, the authorities
told me I couldn’t leave. ‘There’s a travel ban on you,’ the minister
of national security and general prosecutor office’s said.”

So Nuri went to the U.S. embassy. “They were confused. It took them
two hours to get back to me to confirm the travel ban. But they
didn’t give me much information. ‘It’s a domestic issue,’ I was
told. The next day, the general prosecutor released statement that
I need to be questioned regarding some criminal charges. I hired a
lawyer, went to the prosecutor’s office and was interrogated for six
hours. They asked me about affiliation with the U.S. government, if
I was CIA. They asked about my relationship to NGOs, journalists. How
did I get asylum and then citizenship? Why did I travel to Ukraine so
often? Why did I have pictures from the Maidan [the central square in
Kiev then roiled in revolution]? They were accusing me of espionage
and all these questions related to U.S. government and U.S.-funded
programs, the National Endowment for Democracy, and so on.”

Nuri’s lawyer informed him that the authorities planned to charge
him with spying on behalf of the United States. But the U.S. embassy,
Nuri insists, was useless.

Nuri’s lawyer informed him that the authorities planned to charge him
with spying on behalf of the United States. But the U.S. embassy,
Nuri insists, was useless. He obtained letters from then-Freedom
House President David Kramer and Sen. John McCain arguing his brief,
but the diplomatic response from an embassy official Nuri declined
to name was, roughly: “We understand you’re our citizen, but the
problem is you’re on foreign soil and this country is claiming you’re
also their citizen. It’s a sovereign country, so we can’t intervene
in their domestic policies.” The Aliyev government, meanwhile, was
trying to co-opt him, promising him a better life if he remained in
Azerbaijan and publicly repudiated his American citizenship. Where
gentle persuasion failed, the government resorted to other means:
“They taped me having sex with my girlfriend and tried to blackmail
me,” says Nuri. The whole ordeal then ended almost as spontaneously as
it had begun. After eight days of intense grilling and intimidation,
Nuri was deported and his Azerbaijani citizenship revoked. He now
lives in Chicago.

“Azerbaijan has shown they’re prepared to do unpleasant things to
American citizens and people associated with American organizations,
such as RFE/RL,” Ambassador Kauzlarich said, referring to the December
2014 imprisonment of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributor
Khadija Ismayilova, a pioneering anti-corruption journalist who
previously had her home bugged and, like Nuri, was surreptitiously
recorded having sex, the tape of which was leaked on the Internet.

According to Kauzlarich, the government has now all but declared Cold
War on the United States. “In my time, having an association with an
American didn’t buy you protection but there was a willingness not to
do certain things that would cause problems in the relationship. Now
I just don’t think they care.”

For dissidents, the worry is that the Obama administration doesn’t
seem particularly bothered by what’s happening in the oil-rich
authoritarianism on the Caspian, which, as I previously reported,
has spent the last half-decade expending enormous energy and money
lobbying the United States and Europe for political influence.

“I went to an event the other day here in Washington where State
Department officials announced that they’re going to pursue engagement
policy with the Aliyev government,” Alakbar Raufoglu, an opposition
journalist at the D.C.-based TURAN News Agency, told FP. “They didn’t
mention they’re going to highlight a crackdown on democratic activity.

They said they’ll support RFE/RL as much as they can but engagement
policy is number one right now.” For Raufoglu, the future of this
relationship can be seen in microcosm in a video released just
yesterday by the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan,
Robert Cekuta. “Look at what he said the U.S. priorities are: First is
regional security, second is economic growth, and third is democratic
development. Nothing has changed even as the regime has grown worse,”
said Raufoglu. “This is a chilling message that they’re leaving
us behind.”

As for Huseynov, now that his whereabouts are internationally known,
his fate remains uncertain. Living out of an embassy can be a long-time
affair. Just ask WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who obtained asylum
from Ecuador fearing extradition to Sweden to face questioning over
allegations of sexual assault.* He has not left the Ecuadorian embassy
in London for nearly three years. The Swiss mission in Baku is hardly
a sprawling palatial compound. “It’s a little tiny embassy,” a source
involved in his case said.

ERDOGAN REAFFIRMS TURKEY’S PEACE EFFORTS WITH ARMENIA OVER 1915 EVENTS

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Feb 11 2015

by Hatice Kesgin and Izabela Kuczynska

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) -Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called
on Armenia to examine the 1915 events through the lens of science
and not politics.

“Let us remove the 1915 events from the area of politics and refer to
science and scientists,” Erdogan said during a symposium on the topic,
co-organized by the Bogota Externado University and Ankara University.

Erdogan attended the event as part of his official visit to Colombia
Tuesday and said that what the Armenians did against the Turks
and what the Turks did against the Armenians 100 years ago was not
properly discussed.

“We have made an effort to fix relations with Armenia and to open
a new page,” the Turkish president said. “Unfortunately, our peace
hand has always been rejected by the influence of Armenian diaspora.”

“This year is the 100th anniversary. We are still reiterating our
sincere call,” Erdogan added.

In January, the Turkish president sent invitation letters to more
than 100 leaders, including Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan,
to participate in the commemoration of the Battle of Canakkale on
April 24.

Sargsyan reportedly denounced Erdogan’s invitation as a “short-sighted”
attempt to overshadow the 100th anniversary of the 1915 events,
according to ArmeniaNow.com.

The 1915 events took place during World War I when a portion of the
Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the
invading Russians and revolted against the empire. The uprisings
came about after a decision by the empire to relocate Armenians in
eastern Anatolia.

Armenia and Armenian diaspora term the events as “genocide” and ask
for compensation, whereas Turkey officially refutes this description,
saying that although Armenians died during relocations, many Turks also
lost their lives in attacks carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia.

“We will not give up in our efforts for peace and dialogue with
respect to the 1915 events,” Erdogan said.

At the end of his speech, Erdogan said he is thankful to the Ankara
University Research and Application Centre for Latin American Studies
(LAMER), an academic centre that was established in 2009.

-Turkey’s “very clear” stance on Israel

Erdogan said that Turkey’s stance on Israel was very clear.

“Israel should draw back to its 1967 borders, while a Palestinian
state with East Jerusalem as its capital should be established and
sovereign rights of the Palestinians should be respected,” he said.

Turkey’s president added that Turkey has objected many times to
Israel’s expansion policy and severe massacres.

“Turkey has paid a heavy price for terrorism in the country and
is certainly and clearly against all forms of terror and terrorist
organizations,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey had no intention of
interfering in a country’s borders, territory or home affairs.

STATE COMMITTEE ON WATER INDUSTRY FORECASTING LACK OF WATER, WHILE METEOROLOGICAL CENTER HEAVY PRECIPITATION

15:54 February 11, 2015

EcoLur

Gagik Khachatryan, acting Chairman of the State Committee on Water
Industry, beat an alarm in his interviews given on TV in February
that the country may experience lack of water. In his opinion, the
reason is the lack of precipitation. He stated that Akhuryan-Araks
reservoirs contain 18.5 million cum water less than that of the last
year. He said, if needed, again Sevan will be resorted to, in case
of water of lack.

On 11 February Deputy Director of MES Meteorological Center Gagik
Surenyan made a statement, where he mentioned about huge amount of
precipitation in Lori, Tavush, Shirak, Aragatsotn and Kotayq Regions
because of recent Mediterranean cyclones. The monthly precipitation
amount in individual places of Shirak region makes up 110-120% of the
standard. “At the end of the month we will have snow cover higher than
the standard. We are anticipating heavy precipitation in March. Large
amounts of snow are expected to be collected in the mountainous areas
of the country.”